Valverde closes out Tigers win over Royals

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

By MATTHEW B. MOWERYDigital First Media

DETROIT — It was inevitable.As soon as Jose Valverde inked his one-year deal to rejoin the Detroit Tigers, and was promptly anointed the closer by manager Jim Leyland, you knew he’d be tested immediately.

And he delivered against the first-place Kansas City Royals on Wednesday, getting a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his first save of the season in a 7-5 victory.

With the Tigers sitting on a two-run lead in the ninth, Valverde trotted out to his usual Metallica accompaniment, “End of the Line.”

Facing the top of the Royals’ order, Valverde got Alex Gordon to fly out, Alcides Escobar to ground out and Billy Butler to fly out to end it.

Exactly how you’d script the Big Potato’s return.

It helped that the offense that had struggled so much at the end of the West Coast swing picked it up, led by a two-hit, two-RBI game from Victor Martinez, who brought his average briefly above the Mendoza Line.

Martinez laced an RBI double down the first-base line in the third inning that made it 2-1 at the time, then had an RBI single in the four-run fourth inning.

The wisest play he made, though, may have been simply side-stepping a potential collision at the plate, conceding the final out of the third inning.

Jhonny Peralta’s RBI single to right field went right to Jeff Francouer, whose laser to home plate beat the ambling Martinez — trying to score from second — by a good 10 steps. Rather than risk banging himself up on on a foregone conclusion, Martinez merely peeled off harmlessly toward the dugout.

The bottom of the Tigers’ lineup — the “Catfish” in Torii Hunter’s parlance — got the offense started in the second inning, when Omar Infante finished off a two-out rally with an RBI single to break the scoreless tie.

After the Royals strung together five straight hits to start the third inning, taking a 4-1 lead, the Tigers would strike back with two runs in the third inning to get back within one. Martinez would have been the tying run, had he scored ahead of Francouer’s throw.

It became a moot point when the Tigers batted around in the fourth, knocking Royals starter Wade Davis out of the game with four runs, making it 7-4. After a leadoff walk to Alex Avila, Infante followed with a single, and would score when Hunter’s hard-hit ball went right through the legs of KC third baseman Mike Moustakas.

Miguel Cabrera’s sacrifice fly plated the go-ahead run, then a walk to Prince Fielder set up Martinez’s RBI single. Reliever Luis Mendoza walked Peralta with the bases loaded to force in another run.

Max Scherzer would give one run back in the fifth, with back-to-back walks to lead off the inning, followed by an infield single to load the bases. Scherzer would walk Eric Hosmer to force in a run, cutting Detroit’s lead to 7-5.

It could have gotten ugly if the Royals had gotten anything out of a seventh-inning rally. Al Alburquerque came out after two straight two-out walks, and Joaquin Benoit got Moustakas to pop the ball up, but the catcher, Avila, couldn’t locate the ball, forcing first baseman, Fielder, to run 50 feet to make a basket catch, saving at least one run.

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Digital First Media. Email him at matt.mowery@oakpress.com and follow him on Twitter @matthewbmowery.